CASH-strapped police forces are having to find almost £2million a month to pay translators for the vast number of migrants flocking to Britain.

Cash-strapped police are have to find the funds for translators [ROSS PARRY]

Figures reveal that taxpayers have shelled out £45million in the past two years to hire interpreters who speak more than 150 dialects.

They include one speaking Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland and an expert drafted in by Derbyshire police for a Nigerian who spoke only Pidgin English.

The figures are released by police forces under Freedom of Information rules, showing the cost of dealing with non-English speakers was £21.4million in the financial year to March 2013, and £23.6million to March 2012.

The biggest bill was incurred by The Met in London, at £14million over the past two years. It includes paying for experts in African dialects such as Wolof, Yoruba and Oromo.

A spokesman pointed out one in four of its cases is not for criminals but foreign victims or witnesses to crime.

The West Midlands came next, spending £2.5million translating 145 different languages, including Zulu, Mongolian and Chechen.

David Davies MP, who works as a special constable with British Transport Police, said he was “astonished” by the sums involved, adding: “It is just another cost of having an open-door immigration policy.”

He said he knows of cases where criminals who speak English perfectly well demand an interpreter in the hope that the extra work will put the police off.

Some forces are already spending as much translating Romanian as they do Polish, even though restrictions on Romanians working here are not lifted until next year. Interpreters who speak Mandarin are increasingly in demand, as are those who speak Lithuanian.